The rubber tree book . NURSERIES 83 doubt, if a planter was absolutely certain of being able topromptly plant out all the young plants, these distances would,in ordinary circumstances, be sufficient, as, when the youngplants were very tender, each one would help to shade theothers. It is, however, a very common thing in all parts of theEast to find seedlings which have been left in the nurseriesfor twelve, eighteen or twenty-four months, or even longer,and in such cases the extremely close planting is bound to havehad injurious effects on the health of the young plants. When. Fig. 20.—Nursery,
The rubber tree book . NURSERIES 83 doubt, if a planter was absolutely certain of being able topromptly plant out all the young plants, these distances would,in ordinary circumstances, be sufficient, as, when the youngplants were very tender, each one would help to shade theothers. It is, however, a very common thing in all parts of theEast to find seedlings which have been left in the nurseriesfor twelve, eighteen or twenty-four months, or even longer,and in such cases the extremely close planting is bound to havehad injurious effects on the health of the young plants. When. Fig. 20.—Nursery, with Shade removed before Planting-out. such long-delayed seedlings are taken out of the nursery theroots suffer severely. The tender seedlings should be protected from the strongglare of the sun by thatched coverings of attaps or bamboomatting. Later on, when the seedlings have established them-selves, these coverings should be gradually removed, so thatthe young plants may be hardened and thus enabled to with-stand the glare and heat of the tropical sunshine. Unless thisis attended to they are apt to wither and require heavy sup-plying. It is, of course, necessary to water the seedling plants well 84 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK each evening. For this reason, no matter how long the bedsmay be, they should not be more than about 4 feet wide, withpassages between, through which the coolies can walk up anddown to water the seedlings. Many planters favour planting the seeds in the nurserieseach in separate baskets, so as to have basket plants for plant-ing-out, that is, plan
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